CHECK OUT BLOGS ABOUT EARLIER MASTER'S THESES

MASTER'S THESIS TOPICS FOR spring 2021

• Leadership Drivers of firm innovation and performance

  Leadership Drivers of firm innovation and performance

  A company’s mission has the potential to engage employees in the pursuit of goals and outcomes. We want to examine drivers that engage employees in innovative behaviors at the workplace. We have collected survey data, and we are interested in supervising master students that could help us analyze the data.

  Contact person: Alexander.Sandvik@nhh.no

• Developing Capacity for Strategic Renewal in Established Firms

  Developing Capacity for Strategic Renewal in Established Firms

  Technological development requires that well-established firms develop a capacity to continuously renew themselves. Existing research points to a number of different organizational solutions that facilitate change and innovation in established firms such as creating an ambidextrous organization, implementing agile ways of working, collaborating with external partners (e.g. through corporate venturing or through ecosystems), but exactly when and how are these solutions contributing to strategic renewal? Are there other ways firms can build innovation capacity, and can innovation capacity be lost over time? We are seeking master students who can assist in developing a series of case studies aiming to describe and analyze how firms can develop a capacity to continuously renew themselves.

  Contact person: Inger Stensaker and/or
  Christine Meyer

• Digitalization of Work 1

  Digitalization of Work 1

  An increasing number of workers find work not in traditional organizations but on digital platforms, such as Uber or Upwork. These platforms claim to simply mediate jobs between clients and workers, hence they do not employ workers. However, the platforms use algorithmic management to control and direct workers. This project focuses on how workers perceive and deal with this form of algorithmic management.

  Contact person: Peter Kalum Schou 

• Digitalization of Work 2

  Digitalization of Work 2

  Increasingly coordination in organizations is conducted virtually. This allows for new opportunities of connecting people in organizations and sharing knowledge, but it also includes pitfalls and risks, such as ‘digital presenteeism’ and ‘empty labour’, where workers spend time doing needless things online. In the light of the COVID-19 crisis, the use of digital tools such as enterprise social media, videophone apps and online communities become increasingly important. This project seeks to explore how workers use these tools in practice and how it shapes organizational performance.

  Contact person: Peter Kalum Schou

• Effective Teams

  Effective Teams

  Teams are often used to ensure efficient deliveries and sharing of highly specialized knowledge. However, globalization and modern technology imply increasing reliance on more “dynamic” and agile forms of cooperation. What makes teams work effectively in these settings? For example, how do relationships between team members form and develop over time, and how can leaders facilitate for trust and a psychological safe work climate?

  Contact person: Vidar.Schei@nhh.no

• Leadership in a Coopetition Strategy for Innovation

  Leadership in a Coopetition Strategy for Innovation

  Coopetition, when companies cooperate and compete at the same time, may lead to innovation. This has become an important strategy for companies to survive – and thrive. However, in coopetition relationships, it is an inherent paradoxical tension that collaboration for value creation takes place at the same time as competition for value acquisition. How do leaders manage this tension? We invite Master Students @ NHH - You - to take part in studying this in one the four Innovation Clusters in Bergen: Media, FinTech, Seafood & Ocean Technology where many exiting companies innovate together. You will be collecting qualitative (and perhaps quantitative) data, including observations and interviews that will give you insight into leadership roles, challenges and opportunities related to coopetition and innovation in these highly dynamic contexts. The case studies in each of the clusters are part of a larger data collection comparing ‘coopetition for innovation’ leadership over time and across clusters.

  Contact person: Synnove.nesse@snf.no

• HR in Digital Times

  HR in Digital Times

  Technological changes, such as digitalisation, may influence the organisation of work in profound ways. Digitalisation may replace work tasks and create demands for new skills. Furthermore, it may allow new ways to recruit, control, and reward employees. We want to address how technological changes affect the organisation of work, including digitalisation of HR activities and the use of HR-analytics.

  Contact person: Karen.olsen@nhh.no

• The Knowledge Firm

  The Knowledge Firm

  Firms respond to environmental changes through development projects, team- and matrix-based structures, agile organization as well as the use of external labour. While such means may enable more flexibility and adaptability on part of the organization, it also challenges existing hierarchies, traditional human resource management, and raises a number of organizational dilemmas. We invite master theses on the following themes:

  1. Challenges of team-based organizations: Agile, aligned, coordinated, empowered?
  2. Allocation of personnel resources to projects and changing tasks: Aligning firm objectives and knowledge workers’ preferences.
  3. Innovation projects and day-to-day operations: Integration or structural separation?
  4. Organizing for flexible allocation of personnel and innovative problem solving in the state sector.
  5. Combining knowledge integration and knowledge development in project-based firms.
  6. Challenges of the role of resource owner in matrix-like organizations.
  7. Challenges of network organizations: Staffing and organization of firms that combine long- term employment and short-term contracts (examples: film, media, culture).

  8. We welcome empirical studies of organizations across industrial sectors.

  Contact person: Torstein Nesheim, mob. 922 54 892

• Freelancers, Independent Contractors and the Organization of Work

  Freelancers, Independent Contractors and the Organization of Work

  The last decades have seen a growth in the number of freelancers and independent contractors, as well as an extended role of labour market third parties through digital work platforms. These developments transcend traditional organizational and employment boundaries. We invite master theses on the following themes:

  1. Are there specific managerial challenges in coordinating teams and project work when freelancers/contractors and internal employees work together, and how are these challenges handled?
  2. What is the function/business model of third parties and digital platforms, who mediate between freelancers/independent contractors and customer organizations?
  3. What is the function and impact of social networks, professional associations and digital communities as regards knowledge development and market development for freelancers/independent contractors?
  4. How do engineers/professionals in different work arrangements (employee, external consultant) experience and handle their position as liminal subjects in a project setting?

  The research may target various knowledge areas/skills as well as various customer sectors/work arenas.

  Contact person: Torstein Nesheim, mob. 922 54 892

APPLICATION 

Please fill out the online application form to apply to the program, where you include grade transcripts and a brief application letter (max 1 page) with information about your background, motivation to study the topic(s) of interest, preliminary research questions, and date for thesis submission.

The application deadline was 15 October 2020.

WHY SHOULD YOU CONSIDER?

• Your advisor will be very dedicated to the topic and your work. People will be waiting to hear the results (advisor, research team and industry people)
• We have established relationships with corporate partners and networks, so in most cases we can help you with access. Although not all topics require access. Sometimes you can write your thesis on existing data.
• You’ll become a part of a team. A team of researchers and a team of master students. We arrange meetings for you to network, and to challenge and support each other.
• You'll have access to up to NOK 10.000 per thesis for travelling and other expenses.